“Tottenham has been looking for options to renovate White Hart Lane since 2007 and decided it was necessary to build a new arena – next door, partly on the site of the old stadium. If you recall, the club finished the last season at UHL with one closed grandstand, which was being dismantled for construction.
“Tottenham stadium” has a capacity of 62 thousand spectators, there were problems with its delivery – the fire department for a long time could not agree to hold matches because of flaws in the security system. Because of this, Tottenham spent almost six months extra time at Wembley.
The stadium is a closed asymmetric bowl with a capacity of 62062 people. The shape of the stadium bowl is driven by the need to maximize hotel services, while the asymmetry is the result of the creation of a single-tier grandstand on the south side. The stadium is about 48 meters high, 250 meters long on a north-south axis and about 200 meters wide from east to west. The northern part of the structure has 9 floors above the basement and 5 floors in the southern part, with a total interior area of 119945 square meters. The west grandstand facade faces High Road and has a projecting glazed box at an angle, which houses the escalator, and serves as the main entrance for guests and shoppers. The protruding entrance, along with the facades of the other buildings of The Tottenham Experience, presents a traditional linear facade along the High Road. A 9.5-meter sidewalk is paved in front of these buildings to optimize the flow of match-day crowds on High Road. To the east, there is a separate entrance for NFL events on Worcester Avenue. There are two elevated catwalks, one to the north and one to the south, for fans to enter. A large outdoor public area the size of Trafalgar Square was erected on the south catwalk as the main access point for home fans, and it can also be used for sports and community events. Fans can enter from the northeast corner of the stadium via the north podium. The south grandstand houses a 5-story atrium with a single curved glazed façade measuring 7,000 square meters.
The massive structure occupies a large area, but the building’s appearance is modulated by various cladding of glass, metal panels and cast concrete. The perforated metal panels work as a screen, but do not interfere with the natural ventilation and lighting of the outdoor areas in the stadium, and act as a unifying element in the stadium’s appearance. Areas of glazing not covered by the metal screen, including the main entrances and passageways, offices, the Sky Lounge, and a large glazed area to the south, allow viewing both from outside and inside the stadium. The metal panels can be in an open or closed position and are edged with lights that light up during the match, just like at the Allianz Arena.
The roof is represented by a network of cables that are held in place by an ellipse-shaped ring. The roof is clad in vertical aluminum panels that end with pressed polycarbonate on the inside edge, to allow light to enter the field but reduce the contrast of the shadow cast by the roof. Curved aluminum cornices connect the roof to the wall. The field is illuminated by 324 LED floodlights, six each in 54 groups placed on the columns. The stadium has four LED screens, of which the two on the south side are the largest in Western Europe. There are also two facade video screens on the outside of the stadium, three tiers of circular LED displays and nearly 1,800 video screens in and around the stadium.
The stadium is designed with good acoustics, like a concert hall, to make a better atmosphere on match day. The corners of the stadium are fenced and the bleachers are close to the field, and fans can create a “wall of sound” that can go all the way around the stadium.